The Stench of Elitism Hung Heavy in the Air

Barack Obama returned triumphant to San Francisco on Tuesday and was welcomed by throngs of cheering supporters.

…

Not.

You’d think he’d receive a hero’s homecoming, considering that San Francisco is the most liberal big city in the nation and its residents voted for him in overwhelming numbers. But in stark reality, here’s the full extent of the cheering section that awaited him:

A grand total of two people.

Incredible as it may seem, these were the only two identifiably pro-Obama demonstrators I saw all day. On the other hand, there were hundreds upon hundreds of fiercely anti-Obama protesters, attacking him from…

..the left, and…

…the right.

How did we get here? Let’s go back to the beginning of the day and tell the story chronologically.

Boxer fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel

Obama was in town for one primary reason: To raise money for Barbara Boxer’s struggling Senate re-election campaign. He was to attend two events: The first one a gala reception at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, and the second a fundraising dinner at the Getty mansion in Pacific Heights.

Yet things didn’t go exactly as you might have imagined.

While wealthy people who had paid as much as $2,000 each lined up to enter the Fairmont, across the street…

…was a large and raucous protest against Obama and Boxer.

And it wasn’t just one group, or even one half of the political spectrum. Obama was whipsawed, pummelled from all sides simultaneously. Left-wingers, right-wingers, pacifists, libertarians, communists, conservatives, people angry about the BP oil spill, people angry that Obama’s healthcare reform bill didn’t go far enough, others angry that it went too far, extremists, moderates, and everyone in between on both sides of the aisle.

In short, it was the people who came out to express their displeasure with Obama and Boxer. Regular folks, San Francisco-style — which means plenty of leftist ideologues, but also now a substantial contingent of heretofore unseen conservatives who had for decades stayed mute until Obama’s agenda touched such a raw nerve that they could remain mute no more.

So, while the commoners (such as this contingent of Tea Partiers) jostled for space to make their voices heard on the sidewalk across the street from the hotel…

…the wealthy aristocrats one by one were ushered into the hotel’s inner sanctum after showing the police guards their $2,000 admission tickets. So my statement at the beginning of this essay wasn’t entirely accurate. True, there were only two street protesters in favor of Obama, but he was welcomed by several hundred people. It’s just that those hundreds of welcomers were all rich donors who bought access to the president’s presence. And we shall soon see that this Fairmont reception was actually for the riffraff among the aristocrats; later in the day, the real plutocrats shelled out $35,200 per couple to see the Pres at the Getty mansion on Billionaires’ Row.

This whole sorry state of affairs might not be particularly noteworthy with most politicians, since most politicians are blatant money-grubbers. But Obama campaigned and positioned himself as a left-wing populist, “a man of the people,” someone whose run for office was supposedly fueled by $5 donations from the average shmoe, a representative of the common man who would kick out the lobbyists and put an end to the system of big money buying influence and access.

Instead, we got this: Millionaire liberals in tailored suits replacing the country-club Republicans in the inner circles of power. While the average American, as always, was left out in the rain.

Today in San Francisco, the stench of elitism hung heavy in the air.

Back in the cage, commoners!

Kaleidoscopic protest

Many of the news reports about the president’s visit focused on the diverse nature of the protesters arrayed against him. This video made early in the protest by an independent media company called Shaky Hand Productions walks the viewer down the block and identifies many — but nowhere near all — of the protest groups:

Despite the videographer’s amazement that left-wingers and right-wingers and everyone in between could be unified in their loathing of Obama, this is not actually anything new: Ever since Obama’s election a year and a half ago, Bay Area protests have frequently had left-wingers and conservatives simultaneously criticizing Obama from opposite camps. (Actually, I documented Republicans protesting alongside the extreme left-wing as far back as October, 2007 — but that’s a different story altogether.)

Here’s what I saw outside the Fairmont while Obama was being heckled inside. (Later in this essay, we’ll travel to Obama’s next stop at the Getty mansion.)

The Left

The top of Nob Hill — San Francisco’s poshest neighborhood — is not a comfortable place for a protest. The demonstrators were all corralled onto the sidewalk facing the Fairmont Hotel, and so necessarily arrayed themselves into a long line. Although there were no formal “camps” for each ideology, the protest naturally manifested as a political spectrum, with the left-wingers and socialists at the south end of the block and the conservatives and libertarians tending toward the north end. So when I first arrived from Union Square to the south, I initially encountered CodePink, who had encamped at the corner of Mason and California. Here, the Pinkers are protesting against Obama’s and the Democratic congress’ (including Senator Boxer) continued funding of the war in Afghanistan and operations in Iraq.

CodePink’s other pet project these days is denouncing Obama’s use of drones to attack terror targets in Pakistan.

Never content to focus on one issue, like a hyperactive puppy, CodePink also produced a ridiculously oversized banner which was supposed to read “IS CLIMATE CHANGE THE ONLY CHANGE WE GET? — a rather comical sentiment considering the chilly downpour soaking this rally in late May — but it was so huge that all they could do was lay it sideways and try to prop it up from behind, rendering it indecipherable to all but the most dedicated sign-readers (such as yours truly).

Nearby was one of Boxer’s opponents in the Senatorial race, Marsha Feinland of the Peace & Freedom Party. Marsha was holding her own low-end fundraiser in protest against the $2,000-a-plate Boxer fundraiser across the street: $1 for a cup of juice and some cubes of cheese (notice the sign at the lower left). I’ve encountered Feinland repeatedly at protests over the years, and while I confess that I oppose most of the untenable utopian political positions she espouses, I can genuinely say that she seems like a nice enough person; she’s very down-to-earth and has a sense of humor, quite unlike her opponent Madame Highness Her Majesty Senatorissima Boxer.

Nearby were some universal healthcare advocates.

Despite a seeming overlap with Feinland’s healthcare position, the “Medicare for all” people turned out to be Democrat-voting union members who were among the very few people on the scene professing to support Boxer, and I overheard some harsh words and bickering between the Feinland and Boxer camps.

Frost-Paw the Polar Bear showed up to protest against oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic.

He nonchalantly took his place in the protest line.

Some of the Millionaires for Boxer across the street saw Frost-Paw and were like WTF??

Next up were the GLOBAMA cultists. One has the feeling that their entire movement started with someone coming up with the word GLOBAMA and then they subsequently concocted a cause to match the word.

The cause ended up being “Solar on the White House” — a drive to have solar panels installed on the White House roof. One wonders whether they’re serious or not. I mean, considering that Obama’s other stop in the Bay Area was at the Solyndra company in Fremont to which he just gave $535 million in taxpayer money to publicly fund the construction of a privately-owned solar panel factory (now it’s my turn: WTF??), what’s the point of a purely symbolic gesture like putting a couple solar panels on the White House roof? If the guy is already doling out billions in government handouts to solar companies, the need for symbolic gestures is long past. Methinks they just like the word “GLOBAMA” and they haven’t put much thought into it beyond that.

The “Seize BP” contingent was fairly large. Their goal is first to have the government seize and take control of BP (as punishment for the Deepwater Horizon spill), and eventually to nationalize, Chavez-style, the entire oil industry. They’re frustrated with Obama for his slow pace in dismantling the capitalist system. Patience, people, patience! He’s still got over two years left at least — anything is possible.

Various socialist and communist groups manned the barricades, while Truthers wandered about. Par for the course in San Francisco.

The videographer who listed the various groups in the video embedded above missed out on the full extent of the “diversity,” to phrase it gently. Among the harder-to-notice groups were…

An indentation in the barricades served as sort of a de facto no-man’s-land separating the “progressive” anti-Obama/anti-Boxer protesters from the “conservative” anti-Obama/anti-Boxer protesters. Let’s cross over.

The Right

Oh my! Those Tea Partiers! They are so EXTREME!!!!

Many on the “right” side of the protest were focused on taxes (i.e. lowering them) and economic issues.

There was a palpable anticipation of an anti-Obama blowback in the upcoming November elections.

I had never realized until today just how intensely disliked Barbara Boxer is among certain sectors of the population.

This guy had the harshest anti-Boxer message on one side of his placard…

And a slightly more lighthearted one on the other side.

The Carly Fiorina for Senate campaign (Boxer’s presumptive Republican opponent in the upcoming general election) engaged in a bit of semi-astroturfing by sending “protesters” outside Boxer’s Fairmont fundraiser. These Fiorina fans were “boxing against Boxer” (a pretty lame campaign metaphor, frankly). The presence of “Republican protesters” astounded some liberal pundits, for some reason; you can see one of them here mockingly interviewing the Fiorina boxers.

@annie: What would you have liked him to do? Get a bucket full of soapy water and start cleaning off birds? Obama can’t do anything useful for the oil-spill and he knows it. Put the people in who know what they are doing in charge of getting it done and move on to your next task… It’s basic management.

Yeah, I don’t much like the dufus Obama, but people are whining that he hasn’t made empty gestures.

/Agreed that they would indeed be empty gestures. My only complaint is how many people were equally complaining about Bush during Katrina when the same rule applies. In emergency situations like these Presidents can only really do one thing: Authorize emergency supplies/funding/resources such as the military, FEMA, Etc.

Exactly right! All Obowma and the gov.(limited powers per the Constitution) is suppose to do is provide emergency support-just ask Jindahl if he got the help he requested. BUT instead the pols play politics—and try to figure out how they can gain politically from the crisis! BP is trying (and will) take care of the problem. Humans aren’t perfect-there have been spills before (and mother nature worked through them) and there will be spills again (and mother nature will work through them)–BUT WHAT WE WON’T WORK THROUGH- is a government that grows larger (unlimited) and more oppressive at every turn. History is crystal clear–the real threats throughtout history is not due to any single corporation (like BP)-THE REAL THREAT IS BHO AND HIS GAGGLE OF SOCIALIST CONTROL FREAKS. The Jews weren’t pulled out of their homes and put on rail cars and shipped to concentration camps by the likes of a B.P. or Exxon Mobile or Wal-Mart or Apple Computer–IT WAS DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENT RUN AMOK THAT DID THAT. —In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the
Constitution.” THOMAS JEFFERSON 1798.

Obama is the only person that could have sent help to the coast. He has not. There is no way for the people to clean up the oil. There was no plan A..much less a plan B. The clean up is mired in red tape. The governor is having to take things into his hands that the president should have seen were authorized.

The BOP blew, someone authorized to continue drilling…No plan A, no plan B
Obama just needed to give the authorization to give the people what they needed. The people around here can clean up better than any agency with all their red tape..but no authorization was forth coming. No one expects him to get his hands dirty, it would spoil a photo op..like when the MMS was fired..he knew nothing about it..too busy.. A damned important job was vacated and he was unaware. It is evident that Obama is out of his element in making decisions that require knowledge and thought. Agree or disagree, the Gulf is a mess and there is no help.

Discussing the BP problem: you have a “leader” in charge who has never led anything but discussion groups and community agitators; a man who has spent his whole life in academe and knows nothing about practical things and how to get them done or fix them when they go off kilter;
and why are we drilling out in the middle of the ocean anyway when we have plenty of oil near the coasts, in the shale sands and ANWR except he and his eco-loons won’t allow it so of course it is “hard . . . difficult . . . an impossibility” as he complained at his news conference.

What does any president really ever do (physically) besides rhetoric. He could be putting a better plan in place or using his authority to inspire, mobilize, and unite our society into doing something about it. But hey, his “wait around and see” seems to be working so well, maybe your right and he should just stay on vacation.

Ah yes – San Fransicko. The last time I visited SF (2000) was the last time I’ll ever visit there. I’ll pass through if I have to. I went for a week and ended up riding (motorcycle trip) up the coast on highway one most days (wow – beautiful coastline!). Visiting the the downtown area one has to dodge the panhandlers – some of whom are quite aggressive and it seems their personal lexicon lack the word ‘no’.

Everything from a hotel to Big Macs cost much more there than pretty much anywhere else I’ve visited in the past few years. Service is surly – it would seem the young workers even at Mickey D’s feel their position is beneath them. Everywhere I went most of people were unfriendly – almost to the point of being hostile. Can they really spot a tourist like the French do?

Must be something to that study from a year or so ago that found conservative minded people are happier than liberals. Had it not been for a pre-paid hotel stay (way overpriced!) I’d have moved on up the coast where I found the people to be friendlier – and it seems – do not tolerate panhandlers.

KT– I’m from Vegas –and Vegas (off the strip) is somewhat the same– hostile. Did you ever wonder if the vices- trying to constantly justify disregard for the rule of law (man) and the love of God (licentiousness)does not a happy camper make.

I had not thought of it like that. You have a very good point. I live in a very small town in central Washington State. Very quiet – and everyone is friendly. Californians stand out like a white tick on a black dog.

After living in San Fransicko for fifteen years, yaa… it’s really easy to spot the tourist. You have to understand that people who live in San Francisco, don’t have enough money to travel anywhere else. So anyone who visits the city from more than thirty minutes away appears as an oddity.

Anyway, the tourist are usually:

A.) wearing shorts in July
B.) looking up at the buildings
C.) clean and groomed
D.) have manners
E.) are happy
F.) and wearing white socks

I have actually been wondering how 2012 will play out. It’s entirely possible that the election will be close in many states but equal a George McGovern style electoral blowout. He won my home state of NC last time. The chances of this happening again are indeed quite slim.

My own view is that Obama won’t run in 2012. He’s a pathological narcissist; he can’t handle criticism and can’t deal with any sense that he’s not able to control YOU. He lives in a ‘virtual world’ that he himself writes as its author; he can’t deal in the facts and hard reality that are outside of his control.

The 2008 campaign was a walk-in for him, based primarily on anti-Bush sentiment. All that Obama offered was the emotional and virtual realm of ‘hope and change’. Reality was not involved.

The next campaign will have to be grounded in facts not fiction. Furthermore, Obama will be asked to justify his behavior and policies; and there isn’t any Other President’s behavior and policies to campaign against (Bush). Obama has, all his life, managed his lifestyle such that he’s never had to justify his actions. He can’t handle accountability. His entire mode of life is based around HIS control over you.

So, I think he won’t run again; instead, they’ll have to find him some World Government type of job to ship him off to. Democrats are starting to distance themselves from him; they are starting to feel that they can’t rely on him for assistance and also, are aware that more and more people are turning against Obama.

I disagree. I think Obama’s ego and lack of connection to reality will cause him to continue to believe that he will win. Right up to the last minute. I fear what might happen on the morning after the election, especially if he loses badly.

I agree with you, Mark, about Obama’s ego and disconnection to reality. However, I think it will be the Democratic Party that removes Obama from running; they will realize that he will drag them to defeat.

Therefore, they will arrange an ‘international offer’ where Obama can actually live in his virtual world…as head of some international group of whatever. They’ll set up the role for him to step into, and it will be presented as a step-up from being US President. After all, Obama has nothing but disdain for the US.

I don’t know if the Democratic Party can afford to retain Obama for a second term.

Not only will Obama run and win in 2012. The Republicans won’t reclaim power in the House or the Senate in 2010. The right wing extremists have fallen in love with their own celebrity. If you remember, you people were also predicting victory in 2006 and 2008. You predicted victory for McCain Palin. You predicted the demise of healthcare reform, and the rejection of Sonya Sotomeyor, and the sustaining of DADT. The average American citizen is smarter than Steve Doocy. And as long as “The Anointed Two” Sarah Palin keeps endorsing plagiarists and adulterers, s long as Glenn Beck keeps calling Obama a racist, as long as Rush Limbaugh keeps calling Democrats Nazis, as long as Sean Hannity continues o welch on his promise to be waterboarded for charity, and Tea party heroes keep suggesting bartering with chickens is the best health care policy, I think we’ll do just fine. in other words, keep up the good work.

You’ve lost even that last shred of pretense on family values. Proven to be incompetent on the economy. Codified the trashing of our Constitution through the ideological yammerings of John Yoo. Embarked on what President GHW Bush called reason by outing Valerie Plame. As much as guaranteed the Gulf spill by preemptively exonerating oil companies courtesy of The Penguin and his secret energy policy meetings. Reaffirmed your alienation of any and all minorities. Adopted a fully obstructionist approach to legislating. And handed over your philosophical leadership to rodeo clowns, drug addled gasbags, phone sex harrassers, and brain dead half-term governors who never quit. But hey, you love you some three-cornered hats. You want onions?

Skeeziks,
A lot can happpen in 5+ months, but your seriously deluded if you think your lefty Democrat party isn’t going to take a serious beating in November. Every national poll shows the Dems trailing in many of the purple races and Republicans likely ahead in vulnerable seats taken by Dems in traditionally Republican districts in 2006 and 2008. The opposition is likely to pick up at least 7 seats in the Senate and likely more.

Meanwhile, Obama has demonstrated himself to be the man we, ho bothered to research him, new him to be, namely a narcisist with a reed thin resume, who had only one executive position outside of academia which predictably ended in disaster. The one thing he did have was an abundant education in Marxism and radical black liberation theology, and a plethora of far left radical associations.

Obama is ill equiped to handle a recession as his Keynesian bromides will only worsen the longterm economy. His ideology combined with his lack of experience will accelerate his coming challenges. This man and our nation, unfortunately, have yet to see the worst. The oil spill will soon be the least of his problems, and ours. The international economic and and geo political scene are about to engulf him and, unfortunatelly, us. Obama is a weak personality. He is about to be tested like never before. He represents the vacumn that nature abhors.

What I find interesting about many liberals -is not only how angry they are –but how every coup is somehow a reason for celebration. Kinda reminds me of someone on the Titanic-toasting their own demise as the water slips over the hull of the huge ship.. So toast your 9th century socialism–which by the way has never worked in the entire history of man and always leads-in the end- to a failed nation state-through confiscation of other peoples private property, redistribution of wealth, dependency, bitterness, lower standard of living, job losses as the private sector shrinks (like we see now), debt, and more and more government control over people’s lives(loss of their choices and freedom). So raise you glass high brother-but don’t come swimming for my life raft as you and your brethern sink right along with the rest of us into another failed attempt at liberal utopianism. As Benjamin Franklin (one of our disgusting and dumb founding fathers)once said -those who are willing to give up a little of their liberty for safety (or welfare) -deserve neither (and we’ll lose both).

From Reagan’s election in 1980 to the Republican Revolution of 1994 through 2008, it has been largely a conservative agenda shaping our domestic and international policy. I think that last 30 years has had more of an effect than the last 15 months. But that doesn’t fit your Fox News narrative . . . “socialist utopia” . . . “distribution of wealth” . . . “confiscation of property.”

“The right wing extremists have fallen in love with their own celebrity.”

That’s funny. It’s pretty clear that Obama is the type of person who masturbates in front of a mirror surrounded by press clippings from “Dreams of My Father” while listening to his “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for speech” pumped over the White House intercom at full volume.

I’ve noticed something about your incessant ad hominem attacks though. You love to make jokes about the intelligence of others (though we’ve already established you can’t handle being less educated than any of us “unwarshed hillbillies”), but you don’t really seem to understand that there may be a lot of people who don’t like Obama but don’t fit your stereotype. The truth is, Obama is not doing well at all despite the lack of critical reporting in the mainstream media. Some of this was to be expected; after all, no one could be the person that all of these people were waiting for. In order to survive, he is going to have to adapt after the drubbing he is going to take in November. A lot can happen between now and 2010 (not to mention 2012), but his agenda is far outside of the mainstream. He has already lost a lot of the die hard lefty base and with it a lot of independents as well. His only success is a bill that the majority of Americans still don’t like. (They’ll like it even less when they get the bill for it.) You represent his base quite well. You rarely have anything of value to add to the conversation; you are just angry at Bush and want to spew bile on people you consider less pristine that you are. Your posts are a “bubble and squeak” of ad hominem, straw men, and drive by lefty blurbs that are about as connected to reality as the Herby the Love Bug franchise.

I have a suggestion; read at least one article on here and post something in relation to it. Then, move to France le Grouche. Expand your horizons. In 6 months you’ll be getting a tattoo of Reagan holding hands with Margaret Thatcher riding on a unicorn flying off into the sunset.

It was never about the $5.00 schmoes. That was just another fabrication that the media bought and sold to the public. It was always the big money contributions and untraceable foreign credit cards that got him to the WH.

Here’s something I have a hard time getting over. What is with these super expensive wingdings that make it look like a politician is most definately bought? It’s too bad those people with the big money don’t think about donating some of it to the State of California to help bring it out of debt. When you think of the budget deficit of California and all this money being squandered, doesn’t it just about make you want to puke? It just boggles the mind when you try and use logic thought process. Or is logic thought one of those nostalgic things of the past? Thanks for having the news the regular news outlets seem to be so chickenpoop to show. And one more thing. Was Obama actually paid off to be the prez? Was the real truth that votes didn’t matter, that if you can get enough financial aid, votes don’t really matter? Isn’t that sort of a form of totalitarianism?

Unfortunately, the USA press and news media are now famous for what they don’t report. They are largely a vacuous realm of petty nothingness, devoted to endless hours of detailed coverage to people and events who mean next to nothing (Lindsey Lohan, anyone) and no coverage of anything that has any long term significance to any of our daily lives. In that sense, they (along with Academia) have successfully implemented their long term strategy of creating a largely uninformed populace. I used to think that this was coincidence, but now I am convinced it is by design. Fie on them.

I miss San Francisco. Lived there during the “Montana” years of the early 80′s. It was great. Now in Chicago, ( God help me ) it’s just great to see that the whacko’s still run the city. It’s gotten so much worse out there, it’s the constant sunshine – no real seasons, these dopes have nothing better to do. And anyway, don’t they realize it’s all Bush’s fault?

Jason,
Republicans, for all their faults, are rarely definable as fascist. Fascism is a LEFT wing offshoot of Marxism.

There are a few RINO’s who might be lefty enough to be facist, but not many. Lots of Democrats could qualify, Maxine Waters comes to mind as do Tom Friedman and Woody Allen who both this week advocated for some form of an Obama dictatorship.

“Republicans, for all their faults, are rarely definable as fascist. Fascism is a LEFT wing offshoot of Marxism.”

Where, in God’s name, did you learn that? That is just completely factually inaccurate. Like, completely the opposite…. Heck, after WW1 the Russian fascists campaigned as anti-Marxists, which is how they went from Lenin to Stalin.

OK, a quick primer for you: Fascism is for class collaboration (separate classes – e.g. lower/middle/upper); Marxism says classes cause conflict (hence, they want “one class”). Fascism is all about business and capitalism; Marxism is all about socialism and the state “business”. Fascism is all about nationalism; Marxism is all about multi-nation cooperation (internationalism). The contrasts go on and on and on…. Just do a simple google search and you’ll find TONS of info. Please educate yourself before spewing here.

Hey, Justin (S.), ET. Al. I’m a little tired of people saying stuff like “What do you want? For Obama (I call him “aitch.” If Bush could be called Dubbaya for his middle name…) to grab a mop…?” Or, “Do we expect Obama to dive down and plug the well himself? Friends, those are cop-outs!

What aitch SHOULD have done was gather all the environmentalists, marine biologists, geophysicists, oceanographers etc. ect. — along with experts from ALL the oil companies — he could lay his hands on, gather them together in the Situation Room of the White House and not leave there until they resolved the problem – THIRTY-EIGHT DAYS AGO! Instead? He says, “Plug the damn hole” (Wow! Who ELSE but the annointed one would have thought of THAT?!) and trots off to SF to try and save Boxer’s sorry a$$!

THAT’S what the POTUS is supposed to do! Not “resolve” problems but amass the people who can and oversee the process! I’ll tell you what we have now and had 18 months ago. With Bush we had a leader who didn’t understand politics. With Obama we have a politician who doesn’t understand leadership. That’s MY story and I’m sticking with it. Ghostbuster.

I was reading an article this morning. Apparently about a week ago (5 weeks too late), obama did gather together 5 experts to advise him. One of the experts was quickly dismissed when it was discovered that he had a blog, and on this blog he was very vocal in his opposition to Obama’s gays in the military stand.

Sooo…. can we stop with the Obama is a commie garbage. Clearly the commies are pissed at him as well for not delivering on their commie agenda. I think having the fringe (duck and cover) from the left and the right protesting this fella suggests he is more of a centrist that we are lead to believe.

It is amazing to me the misinformation I see with those signs. These people are so ignorant except the ones that know big government is always corrupt. Excellent article and title. The Polar bear sign is amusing since the polar bears have increased in numbers. The drilling in Alaska would enable our nation to be free of chains from foreign entities. new drilling procedures would have little impact. If they don’t think accidents happen every once in awhile they are zombies. O received foreign money not just the commoners $5 donations. He is a danger to this country like none other. The elite have taken over and they will be the ones to profit in the transformations of this country. These people standing holding signs would do better to read Atlas Shrugged and understand the real danger looming here and it isn’t the disappearance of the Polar Bears. Our main stream media have become useless and the are aiding the enemies.

Besides your very amateurish attempt at provocation your post has little to no relevance of provoting deep thought or contemplation. The emphasis of this article lies not in the location, or the amount of people involved, but instead the wide array of people involved. If people from the “left”, the “right”, and the “others” are all complaining about the President, then who exactly does he represent? That is the real problem with this scenario.

People with excessive money essentially went to bid on the President’s influence and time. He used his position to help fill the coffers of his fellow Democrat. While the President wined and dined with the Rich and Famous, where were the common folk?
…..
Oh yeah. They were outside on the street trying to get their elected official’s attention. In the rain, which he did not deign to be in himself, hence the tent for his limousine. The people who’s commonality lie in their income were lumped together, regardless of creed, race, religion, or political beliefs. They don’t make enough money to interest him.

Conservatives only began “giving up” on Bush when it became clear that they, like Bush, would be held accountable for the impact of his last seven years of his policy, which conservatives all supported.

It was not a stand on principle, it was a desperate strategy for survival.

I am fuming mad, this impostor, Obama, it Bush three, he is another big government, Globalist Elitist. The rich get richer, saying things that the poor suck up like sponges, the reality is these guys are playing us for fools. I am waking up to the fact that government programs are making more poor people not helping them much. I see the corrupt rich getting richer, like Boxer, she is not poor, Bush, they are rich. You can only be rich and run for president, to rule over the masses, give a good speech and make them think that you are helping them. I am now seeing more clearly, Obama is nothing but an empty suit.

I’ve encountered many left liberals, like you, who are upset with this president.

I wish you peace. Now you know how many on the right felt when GWB began the Wall Street Bailout.

Presidents do what they think is least evil while pushing the agendas that got them elected. Frankly, I don’t understand this president either. I have significant doubts about his grasp on the last century of Middle Eastern Politics.

Nevertheless, for better or for worse, he is our president. I look forward to having better choices to vote for in 2012.

About those misspelled protest signs: Such misspellings were a common occurrence in the days of hand drafting. In the engineering offices, there was even a saying – “a draftsman can’t spell”.

What happens is that the person making the sign gets so focused on the size and shape and placement of the individual letters (call ‘em ‘trees’), one after another after another, that he blanks out on the sequence in constructing the actual words (the ‘forest’), and sooner or later just mechanically starts off on the wrong letter. Crisis! She owns just one placard in the first place, and is already grumpy at the time already invested. Screw it, just finish it and let it be misspelled, it looks more proletarian anyway.

Good work zombie. I am in the bay area and this is the first I hear about this. The white tent is a security measure as well as rain protection. My cousin lived next to the German embassy in NYC near the UN and when people of importance came and went they would set up a white tent/tunnel to the limo. You would have no clue as to the movement of people at all and then the limo would just take off. Makes shooting someone from a rooftop or window almost impossible and you don’t have to have control of the high ground for security.

You obviously have no idea how economics work properly, otherwise you wouldn’t be ranting about how he’s “giving money away” to companies that make money. It’s an incentive, the company in question wouldn’t have built the solar panel factory because it’s too risky and might not make money etc etc. The grant is a “get it done” grant to help lower the cost of solar panels by introducing a competitor that can lower the overall market price and make clean energy more available to millions of people that might have said no before. Think about the bigger picture for fuck sake, so many of you look at what is happening to you or compare things to your values. $35 million sounds like alot but in business terms (and indeed government terms) it’s fuck all. If Obama didn’t spend that money then overall in 10 years time solar power might still be one of the most expensive forms of clean energy that people don’t use. It could be this company makes some money off the panels and contributes more than $100 dollars a year in tax. You don’t think of the bigger picture here and you need to get your head out of the sand. Obamas decisions are good, solid choices that need to be made and everyone is annoyed at him because he has the balls to make them. Thanks to Obama the US has a national healthcare system, and the insurance companies have been railed in. Thanks to Obama, the USA has not pulled out of an unstable nation that are too pussy to deal with the taliban. You need to realise that Obama did not start these wars, and he can’t pull troops out whilst american lives are still being threatened by idiots that are so backwards they think they need to kill everyone. Can’t honestly believe the crap i’m hearing from people that had balls but have lost them now obama is making the changes he said he would.

Just wanted to weigh in on an angle of particular interest to me. I work for a tent company, and when the President (Clinton and W) has visited our City, we’ve been contracted by the Secret Service to provide marquee (walkway) tents with sidewalls to conceal the President as he exited his vehicle and entered the venue. These were sitting Presidents, not candidates (as Obama was in the previous visit to Billionaire’s Row), so there is apparently a greater security factor in play.

Anyways, I do love these SF posts…cannot imagine living there, I am not one to suffer fools (radical Lefties) gladly.

Oh I could not agree with Matt more. For crying out loud, everyone thinks that Obama should have everything that has been fucked up for so long fixed in a years time. He has made great progress, just give him a damn break. I voted for him and would do so again in a minute. He is doing just what he said he would, at least he is trying. No one else has had the guts to do anything. I am an Obama supporter and will continue to be one. All you Obama opposers think you could do better? Then run for office next time, Lets see you fix all the problems of this country in such a short time.

If people want some stuff to get done in the country do your research and see what conflicts are going on right now. NOT EVERYONE IS GETTING WHAT HE/SHE WANTS no matter what. There will always be opposition to ANYTHING the president does because people these days can’t get satisfied with anything. For example, where’s the money going to come from to clean the oil spill. People complain by the abundance of government spending yet they still want MORE AND MORE. To change the world COSTS MONEY! The president doesn’t even have the power to do many things that are asked of him. If you want major change in the country, start caring about who is voted into CONGRESS, that’s where the power to get what you really want comes from.

I can’t believe that there was only ONE protest sign about the illegal occupation and the massacre of the Palestinian people by the filthy IDF and the Jews in Israel. Despite a healthy economy, Israel still receives over 3 BILLION dollars in direct American Taxpayer donations and another 10 – 15 BILLION per year in military support from the suckers in the United States. I wonder how much longer it will take for the average American to realize how much damage the relationship with the terrorist state of Israel has caused to their credibility around the world and how soon they will take to the streets and demand that we stop supporting them financially as we are now officially broke and can’t afford to donate $500.00 to every man, woman and child in the terrorist state of Israel. We should have let Hitler finish the job..he got so close..so very close.
DAMN.